Friday, December 21, 2012

Alvin Remmers posted on Goggle+ a link tomoonandback about NASA's Z-1 Spacesuit and I thought I would check out the article. You may well find it informative if we are ever to venture out on a planetesimal in the vacuum of space.

I don't think we have answered the question of how to deal with solar flares while spending years in a spaceship to some asteroid. Nevertheless, lets see what we have here since we seem to be on track to build a big rocket that will need to have some place to go.

To infinity and beyond! Not a bad battle cry for NASA, don't you think? A tad derivative, perhaps. But with NASA's gaze set on the Moon, Mars and beyond, it does fit. Read about NASA's new spacesuit.Details >> http://moonandback.com/?p=28378

NASA's Z-1 Spacesuit was Named by TIME Magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2012

By TIME's staff: The biggest thing NASA’s first space suits had to do—aside from keep astronauts alive—was to look spacey. So ordinary test-pilot suits were simply redesigned in a nifty silver. Things are harder now as the U.S. prepares for new deep-space missions. The Z-1 space suit provides go-anywhere garb featuring more-flexible joints, radiation protection for long stays in space and a hatch on the back that allows the suit to dock with a portal on a spacecraft or rover so an astronaut can crawl through without letting dust in or air out.snip

Since its earliest days, flight has been about pushing the limits of technology and, in many cases, pushing the limits of human endurance. The human body can be the limiting factor in the design of aircraft and spacecraft. Humans cannot survive unaided at high altitudes. There have been a number of books written on the subject of spacesuits, but the literature on the high-altitude pressure suits is lacking. This volume provides a high-level summary of the technological development and operational use of partial- and full-pressure suits, from the earliest models to the current highaltitude, full-pressure suits used for modern aviation, as well as those that were used for launch and entry on the Space Shuttle. The goal of this work is to provide a resource on the technology for suits designed to keep humans alive at the edge of space. Hopefully, future generations will learn

The A7L Apollo & Skylab spacesuit is the primary pressure suit worn by NASA astronauts for Project Apollo, the three manned Skylab flights, and theApollo-Soyuz Test Project between 1968 and the termination of the Apollo program in 1975. The "A7L" designation is used by NASA as the seventh Apollo spacesuit designed and built by ILC Dover. The A7L is a design evolution of ILC's initial design A5L and the A6L, which introduced the integrated thermal and micrometeroid cover layer. After the deadly Apollo 1 fire, the suit was upgraded to be fire-resistant and given the designation A7L.[2][3]

December 21, 2012 – What do you get when you cross the historic spacesuit worn by Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and the futuristic spacesuit 'worn' by Disney-Pixar's Buzz Lightyear?

NASA's prototype Z-1.

The space agency's first new spacesuit to be designed, built and tested in about a decade, the Z-1 features pliable fabrics, a rear-entry "suitport," and — even if unintentional — more than a passing resemblance to a certain animated space ranger.